They were soaked to the skin, frozen by the cold, and whipped by the stinging hail.

Though they bent their heads and bodies, though they clung hand in hand, though they struggled with all their strength, there were times when they could not advance a foot and must needs wait for a lull in the shelter of a porch.

At such times the man would perhaps quote a line of Virgil about the cave of the winds, and the woman curse like a grenadier.

They, however, were not the only people who were distressed by the storm.
Outside the villa in which the Princess was imprisoned stood the two sentinels, one beneath the window, the other before the door.

There were icicles upon their beards; they were so shrouded in white they had the look of snow men built by schoolboys.